Settlements

PAYING FOR CRIMES

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Within a given year, over 207,000 sexual assaults are reported in the United States. St. Martin and Bourque helped win a case for a young man who was victimized by a neighbor when he was young. St. Martin and Bourque was able to aquire $1,558,000 for our client.

Our client, who was above the age of majority at the time of trial, was sexually abused by an older male neighbor from the time he was six years old until he was thirteen years old. The boy was a frequent visitor at the neighbor’s house, and the neighbor and his wife allowed him to spend numerous nights at their house during this time period. The neighbor denied our client’s allegations of sexual abuse.

During the course of trial, the jury was presented with evidence that the neighbor gave conflicting reports to various authorities about the extent of his contact with our client, including the number of times that the boy slept at the neighbor’s house and the number of times that the neighbor slept in the same bed with him. After two days of testimony from our client, the neighbor, our client’s various healthcare providers, and several character witnesses presented by the neighbor, the jury returned a verdict finding that the evidence indicated that the neighbor had sexually abused our client and awarded $500,000 in general damages and $58,000 in special damages to our client. The jury also awarded $1,000,000 in punitive damages. The jury was instructed that it would have to find that the evidence indicated beyond a reasonable doubt that the neighbor had sexually abused our client in order to awarded punitive damages.